The Extra

I.

Sometimes, you feel like

an extra in a big budget film.

Staring from afar

hoping the camera

may catch a glimpse of you

before you go out-of-focus

or vanish onto

the cutting room floor.

You don’t get

to be heard.

You barely get

to be seen.

And the camera is

never focused

on you.

II.

Somebody else

is the subject of the shoot.

And he knows he’s the lead

as he hams it up

for all to see.

III.

You watch

even as the assistant D.

tells you to act normally

like a soul

lost in a crowd

(which is easy to be).

IV.

You can’t help but watch

as the lead guy

gets all the attention

and all the perks.

There you stand,

pantomime

like a common man

off the street.

V.

There I stand,

invisible in a crowd.

That audience will

barely see or notice:

Never knowing me.

Never hearing me.

Never seeing me.